Whilst Mr. Sano denies the claims, it appears that whoever put together the mockups highlighting how the emblem might be used in public settings around Tokyo also decided to take some liberties with others work – most notably mine!

The graphic above was emailed to me by a “concerned citizen” who somehow managed find out that the background photo used for the composite illustration of Shibuya came from a blog post I wrote a number of years ago.

Whilst it’s very cool to see one of my photos being used in this way it would have been nice if they’d at least asked.

Note: I provide all my photos on Flickr under a Creative Commons license, but they’re only for non-commercial use and must be attributed.

Update (1 Sept 2015):

It’s just been announced the emblem, designed by Kenjiro Sano, has been dropped amid the plagiarism claims. Many media organisations have been asking for my comment so in order to save some time below are some FAQs:

1. Did anybody from Mr. Sano’s office “Mr_Design” ask for permission to use your photos?
No

2. If you could prove Mr. Sano’s plagiarism, would you file a law suit against him?
No

3. How do you feel about his behaviour towards design and copyright?
It seems that Mr. Sano’s staff were careless about asking for permission to use other people’s work which isn’t very professional, especially given the high-profile nature of the project.

4. What do you think about the decision that the organising committee made?
I think this situation has been blown out of proportion. I liked Mr. Sano’s design for the Tokyo 2020 olympic emblem so I’m sad to hear that it’s been dropped.

Originally from the UK, David is designer and wanderer currently based in Tokyo. Prior to this, he lived in China and still returns frequently to continue exploring this vast and varied land. He started Randomwire in 2003 to chronicle his travels and occasional musings. Feel free to drop him a line.

I’m ashamed as one of Japanese.
I thought a lot about us and I want you to hear my feelings,
that 95% of Japanese feel bitter resentment with Sano,
who is a robber and a self‐styled artist.
All we feel for the pains of you.

Why is Japan government didnt do a thing?
The IOC said it’s not plagiarism.
However, all these proof and claims are more than enough to say that there’s something wrong with the logo (and its designer).
The fact that Sano is connected with inside IOC people is such a terrible case of bribery here.
It’s throwing muds all over Japan.

Wow David this quite interesting to me, do you know what context the work this graphic designer presented the work in? Do you know who actually did the illustration, could be different people… From the little pics here it seems to me these are comps but I could be wrong…

I ask because in my own career ” concept design ” we quite often comp things together from found sources. Depends on the time constraints etc…Generally you don’t ever just use something straight you make it your own to sell the idea and also that work is generally never for public consumption, its only used in-house to sell the design, in this case the graphics.

I am assuming your photo’s of the buildings are just there for environment but again I don’t even now who this designer is much less his intent…

Final ” Key ” art is produced for public and shouldn’t include others work unless it’s as a member of the team and or purchased through a service…

It seems you are suffering from success here my friend, your photos are so nice 😛

Just FYI for both Davids, the stolen photo was part of Sano’s official presentation and was offered as a use case. Just about 1 hour ago, Sano’s emblem was officially retracted by Japan’s Olympic committee and he was fired, not because of the unresolved trademark problems surrounding the emblem itself, but because he stole from this blog and 2 other photo blogs.

Japan is rich in art and design. This Sano’s disgraceful plagiat should be thrown into the garbage can. There are more than enough gifted designers who will provide marvelous emblems the Japanese people can be proud of.

You are so gentle that you won’t take Sano to the court. I respect your broad-mindedness so much. But I think your paternalism would spoil him and make him have no conscience to do the same things in future. In fact, there is no apology for this from him, aren’t there?

Although Japan embarassingly stumbled twice, the scrapped stadium design & logo, I would like to believe that Japanese citizen ourselves have respectable virtue and dignity. If not, we would have denied any international doubts on the originality of the logo, and just tried to carry on the progression of the Olympic project to pursue the success of their national project arrogantly. Luckily, we are not shameless nation. We chose to be called idiot rather than keep using the logo designed by Mr Sano who has been plagiarising habitually. We are looking forward to introduce a beautiful new logo!

I’m sure you must know by now that many Jpnse are greatly ashamed of the outcome concerning Mr.Sano’s emblem. But at the same time the majority of my people are raged at him and the judges who selected his emblem. I appreciate your kindness and understanding towards Mr.Sano using your photo without permission. However, the reason his emblem was cancelled for use was not because of that. It was because Mr.Sano and his designing company had been copy&pasting or tracing other designer’s works and photos taken by ordinary citizens for his other works without asking for permission as well. Although there is no proof he did the same for the Olys emblem, Jpnse do not want such a person to have the honor to design the Tokyo Olys emblem. He has not yet given any explanations on why he had made his past works in that manner, but merely gave a written statement that he has withdrawn his Olys emblem because he can no longer stand he and his family being bashed online, as if he is accusing those who found out what he had been doing, as well as those who have pointed out how personally close he had been with some of the judges who voted for his emblem design. He has apologized to those related to the Tokyo Olys committee etc., but has not apologized at all to the citizens of Jpn too. Therefore it is very difficult for us to feel sympathetic concerning his position in all this, and I believe you need not feel sorry for him at all either.